Thought for the Day for February

by Swami Krishnananda

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Who seeks to know what truth do things enshrine
Would know that Self is dearest all things hold.

The notion of oneself being identical with the body is the cause of egoism. It is this egoism that entangles all judgments of value in the preconception that knowledge is acquired through the senses and the mind or the intellect. This prejudice of egoism is samsara, the persistent idea that all knowledge is in terms of space, time and externality.

Thus, the whole of one's life is one of studentship in the school of creation for a recognition of a cosmic significance present in all beings.

This Pure Consciousness is the same as Pure Bliss, the source of Power and the height of Freedom. This is the supreme Silence of the splendid Plenitude of the Real, where the individual is drowned in the ocean of Being.

The four noble truths of the Buddha that there is suffering, that there is a cause for suffering, that there is a way out of suffering and that there is a state beyond suffering, are proof enough to show that he was not a nihilist in the sense in which the word is used today, but a practical man who had an eye to doing something more than merely conjecturing about Truth and its realisation.

The world is to be contemplated upon as a kingdom seen in a dream. It is a reality at the time of its experience but vanishes instantaneously on one's rising to wakefulness.

There is no thought or aspiration which cannot be fulfilled if only it is sincere and strong enough, and the mythological glories of the epic personalities are intended to foreshadow man's ascending achievements in the process of the higher evolution of consciousness to the full expression of its inherent potentialities.

Great men are not those who run fast and speak much but think deep and live wisely. More than doing it is being something - a change of outlook and attitude. We are great, not because we are something to the world but because we are something in ourselves, even if the whole world is not to exist at all.

The spiritual way of life is perhaps the most intriguing and enigmatic of all arts and sciences.

The philosopher-aspirant who is possessed of a flaming passion for integrating himself in Existence does not have the dull patience to linger on with the slow process of progressive self-transcendence through the channels of the different degrees of reality.

Unthinkable, imperceptible, is the way of Yoga. The way of the Yogi is like the track of birds in the sky or of fish in water, as they say. The track is invisible. So are those of fish in water; so is the path of the Spirit. It is invisible.

The sage is without hatred, and loves all. Firm in his resolution, he is yet possessed of the tenderest compassion. While wanting nothing for himself, he gives joy to all.

One's life-span, actions, wealth, education and death are all determined even while in the womb of the mother. The Omniscience of God is proof enough of the predetermination of everything. Human effort is a part of the way in which the universal plan works. Any egoism of man is thus sheer vanity.

The lover of God-the true lover of God-transcends the realm of shame. When you love God, you may become something which will not be understandable to society, the public of people. Nobody could understand Mira, the queen of a kingdom, dancing in the streets.

The most fundamental experience is consciousness or awareness, pure and simple, free from the self-contradictory divisions and fluctuations of thought.

Draupadi exclaims in the court of the Kauravas: "That is not an assembly where there are no elders; they are not elders who do not know dharma; that is not dharma which is not in consonance with truth; that is not truth which has crookedness behind it."

The art of yoga is the procedure which the deepest in man adopts towards the solution of the mystery of life.

Nonconformists did build this art of life,
Not moral masons who the stones well count.

Just as when we touch a live wire the electric force infuses itself into our body, when we deeply meditate on God the power of the whole universe seeks entry into our personality.

There is eternity masquerading in this mortal frame of the human individual, the great fact of the universe which is peeping through every pore of our perceptional faculties.

Realisation is not an actual 'becoming', but an unfolding of consciousness, an experience of Truth, Truth that already is, Truth that is eternal. The essential existence can never change. We cannot become what we actually are not at present.

Buddha and Sankaracharya represent two sides in the picture of life. The purely phenomenal approach of Buddha implies the so-called solid content of the appearance called the world, and the spiritual doctrine of Sankara fills this emptiness with Soul, and completes the picture.

Brahma, Vishnu and Siva are not three gods, but the one God performing three functions. There can, thus, be no superiority or inferiority among them. They are like the three faces of a crystal where one face reflects the others.

In the final stage of worship, the soul of the devotee itself performs the worship by offering itself, by surrendering itself, in an intimate union of itself with its Beloved.

A difficult thing it is to become a philosopher! It is not merely reading a book, or going through the range of the history of the thoughts of philosophers. One can become a professor of philosophy, but not easily a philosopher. A philosopher is one who has an insight into the substantiality of things, and not the appearances they put on in their mutual relationship.

Doubts on the path of sadhana indicate that the spirit of sadhana has not been properly grasped. When there is enough conviction about the correctness of the method adopted, sadhana quickly bears fruit.

The seekers who austerely transform the objectifying energy into the Conscious Power that causes the blossoming of the self-sense into the objectless Consciousness are the integrated aspirants of the Absolute, whose power is used to carry on profound spiritual meditation.

The Jivanmukta is neither an idle man not an active man. He is a transcendental actor. His behaviour is ununderstandable even as Brahman is inscrutable, for he is Brahman itself. Whatever he does is righteous, moral and ideal, for his actions are the expressions of the Absolute itself.